


where we love is home

by possibilityleft



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Extra Treat, F/F, Fusion Prejudice, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-27
Updated: 2015-10-27
Packaged: 2018-04-28 12:11:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5090237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/possibilityleft/pseuds/possibilityleft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>"You're looking at me differently now," Garnet says.</em>
</p>
<p>Slight Pearl/Garnet.  Post-regeneration for them both, Garnet and Pearl have a discussion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	where we love is home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ViolentFlowers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViolentFlowers/gifts).



"You're looking at me differently now," Garnet says, and Pearl stops mid-pose. She cranes the front half of her body around to meet Garnet's eyes, and then she blushes and turns away. She slides gracefully onto both feet.

"Why would you say that?" Pearl asks, and now that she isn't dancing, she stands, gawky, awkward, still uncomfortable in her own skin. This is the first regeneration she designed herself, not to the whims of her designer or her owner. Rose told her to try something new, and Pearl took twice as long to come back as she usually did. Garnet knew it would take a while for Pearl to find the courage to change anything. She hasn't done much except simplify the outfit -- gone are some of the laces and frills, but she's added a sash that Garnet thinks really suits her. It whirls around her when she dances.

"Because it's true," Garnet says, and Pearl winces. 

"It's -- I'm not prejudiced, you know," Pearl begins, babbles, "-- how could I be? You know what I am--" And although Garnet doesn't show it on her face, she wants to wince too. Pearl is slowly growing into herself, and maybe this is painful to Garnet because she had to go through the same process after she'd first come into existence, but it's so hard to see her stumbling into personhood, and drifting back when she isn't confident.

"I know," Garnet says, and Pearl doesn't wince this time, even though Garnet's voice is not warm. Garnet subsumes most of Ruby's more emotional responses inside Sapphire's stronger urge to hide hers, and she knows that it does not make her easy to get to know. Pearl has never said anything about it. Pearl is used to people who speak to her this way.

"It's that -- I'd never met them before. Ruby and Sapphire. And now I can't help it -- I keep thinking about them." She gestures at Garnet, a quick up-and-down motion. "And you. You're so... different from them."

"Not so different," Garnet says, because she does have her own personality, but she recognizes where many of her traits come from, even if they combine in different ways in her. "I..." She hesitates, and then uses the pronouns that make the most sense. "We didn't want you to meet us in that way. Wanted to plan it."

Garnet made plans, in fact, but the war they were being dragged into meant that plans changed. She didn't regret taking the blow meant for Pearl in that fight, even if it had split her. She will do it again if she has to. Probably when. Her future vision is clouded now with scuffles and skirmishes and screaming, and she can't sort out what's coming next.

"Garnet," Pearl says, and her eyes are soft then. She reaches out like she isn't sure she's allowed, and rests her fingers on Garnet's wrist. "Please don't think less of me," Pearl says. "I'm trying."

"I don't," Garnet says, and she steps forward, taking Pearl's hand and wrapping it around her bicep. "Come on, Rose wants to see us."

"Of course," Pearl says, and they walk back to the temple together, towards the future.


End file.
